General description
Rossum, in general, strives to maximize the automation of business transactions. When dealing with the AP process, the transaction starts for Rossum by receiving the document for data extraction. It may seem obvious to say that Rossum can help automate the transaction by accurately and automatically extracting all values from the document.
What would such functionality bring? What value would there be for a customer if Rossum simply sent the raw extracted data to the target system? The value would be minimal—it would likely not be possible to create the document in Coupa, as the structure of the data would not fit its requirements. Even when the creation of the document in Coupa were possible, the user would still have to perform many tasks manually (identification of the supplier or business unit, linking PO lines to the invoice lines, account coding, etc.), and this is not aligned with Rossum’s mission.
Rossum can, and does, go further to increase automation and value. Automated identification of the supplier, business unit, PO line matching, etc., are part of the Rossum Coupa integration to ensure that the document is always created in Coupa when confirmed in Rossum.
Still, ensuring that the document is created in Coupa is not where the business transaction ends. There are other steps in Coupa itself that have to be done manually to complete the process. This is where the difference between drafting and submitting the documents comes into play. There is a difference between creating a document in Coupa as a draft and submitting it upon creation. Direct submission of the document from Rossum pushes the document further in the process and also automates part of the steps that would normally be handled manually by the AP team in Coupa.
Drafting | Submitting |
|---|---|
Relaxed validation in Coupa | Strict validation in Coupa |
Easier configuration in Rossum | Complex configuration in Rossum |
Manual AP related steps in Coupa | Possible automation all the way to approvals (potentially full automation) |
Possibility to adjust AP related values in Coupa | Out of AP hands in Coupa (unless AP is part of the workflows) |
Implications of drafting vs. submitting for end user and automation
When looking at the whole business transaction related to the processed document, and we say that it starts in Rossum, we also need to consider the steps that happen in the systems after the extracted data is exported from Rossum. This implies that automation in Rossum is not equal to the automation of the business transaction.
Drafting
When all documents exported from Rossum are created in Coupa as drafts, the automation of the transaction logically ends. Every drafted document in Coupa has to be manually touched and submitted.
Submitting
There are many factors in Coupa that influence the process after submission (approvals, etc.) that are not directly tied to the content of the document, and Rossum cannot influence them.
When the document is submitted directly from Rossum, it reaches more advanced statuses in the Coupa-defined workflow, and it can theoretically proceed without any human intervention. Full automation of the transaction, starting in Rossum and ending in Coupa, could be achieved.
Implications of drafting vs. submitting for Rossum configuration
Any kind of Rossum integration with Coupa uses data replicated from Coupa to verify the extracted information and also enrich the data before sending it to Coupa. This validation and enrichment is there to ensure that the document will always be created in Coupa and that key objects will be linked to the document (Supplier, Business Unit, PO line, etc.). Custom configuration is necessary, as Rossum needs to understand the specifics of the customer’s workflows and master data.
Drafting
When drafting the document in Coupa, only a few validation checks are performed by the Coupa system. Thus, the complexity of the validation logic related to Coupa that has to be implemented in Rossum is reduced. With reduced complexity, of course, the cost of configuring the integration and maintaining it is also reduced.
An important fact about the drafting workflow is that Rossum does not need to implement logic to cover every detail and exceptional case in the process, as every document will be reviewed in Coupa and special cases will be handled there.
Submitting
When submitting the document to Coupa, there must be many more Coupa validations and logic transferred to the Rossum system. Therefore, the complexity of the validation logic related to Coupa that has to be implemented in Rossum is higher. With higher complexity, of course, the cost of configuring the integration and maintaining it is increased.
In the submitting workflow, Rossum needs to implement complex logic to cover every detail, as the document will not be edited in Coupa anymore (or only in a limited way). It is usually not possible to submit all documents processed in Rossum, so the submitting workflow also needs to implement all the rules and conditions to eventually fall back to draft (because submitting to Coupa would fail).